Introduction to my Findings
I discovered that motivating students to practice wasn’t really about the practicing alone, it was about how kids experienced band. When kids felt good they worked hard and enjoyed themselves. When they felt bad they admitted to acting lazy and feeling bored. Initially I wanted to focus on how and what students practiced but my focus shifted to how and why students practiced. As I analyzed feedback and conversations with students centered on how and why they practiced, I listened to student feedback and I tried their suggestions in class. The more conversations and discussions we had about their feedback, and the more I acted on what they told me, the more engaged students became. Below is the story of where I started, what I found, and where it ultimately took both the students and I in becoming the band we wanted to be. But first, a brief overview:
What I found…
Getting students to practice was more about the culture within the classroom and how my students felt about their purpose in band.
Students were more engaged when they had a voice in the direction of rehearsals and when they had a choice in the music we rehearsed.
Students were more focused when they observed their peers working hard and identified leaders to follow in small group rehearsals.
Students were motivated to practice by authentic performance opportunities.
Students who identified themselves as Musicians practiced more; “It’s what you do!”
I began this research interested in finding out how to get students to practice and enjoy band classes more, and wondering, “How can I create a classroom community that supports deliberate practice, mastery, joy?”
I have divided my Findings into three chapters. The first tells the story of how I initiated the action research process. I describe the first steps of asking my students for feedback, analyzing their responses and taking action. In the second chapter, I dig deeper into student responses and talk about what I learned about practice from students. The third chapter describes different things I tried as a result of student feedback and how it reshaped the culture of my classroom and energized student engagement. I listened and acted upon the student’s feedback throughout the year and analyzed how it changed student’s participation and satisfaction. I reflect and analyze the changes in both student experience and my role and thoughts while developing a community that supports deliberate practice.
Activating Student Voice
I began the year wanting to share what I had learned from reading about deliberate practice and motivation with my students. I felt that if I had understood what I know now about practice when I was in middle school maybe I would be an even better musician than I am today. I felt that my students had problems buying into practice in past years and I didn’t know if my students were getting anything out of their individual practice. I was eager to just start talking to them, but before I really began the action research process I worked to build a foundation for open communication, feedback and trust. I wanted the students to know and feel that they would not be judged or graded for their feedback throughout the year. I wanted students to feel comfortable giving critical feedback of my performance as their teacher.
During the first week of school community and norm building I asked students to complete an exit card. This data did not particularly pertain to deliberate practice but it set the foundation for what was to follow and directly shaped my approach to teaching. Students were asked to complete the following two sentences. “A great music student...” And “A great teacher…” Students created five sentences for each prompt. We set up the classroom in a big semi-circle and had two student volunteers record the responses on the white board. Students took turns reading their responses out loud. After all of the responses were recorded on the board we discussed, combined and reworded their responses. Throughout this process students identified common themes like joy, perseverance and effective practice. I asked students to think about what quotes would be the most important to remember throughout the year. We agreed to turn our favorite responses into large format posters for the band room.
I learned a great deal of what students expected from me as their teacher from this simple exercise. It allowed students to begin to take more responsibility for their success both as individual musicians and as an ensemble. The posters containing their favorite quotes gave me plenty to consider each day when I walked into the classroom:
“A great student never gives up no matter how hard the task is.” “A great student listens to what the teacher says and uses it in a resourceful way.” “A great student achieves his or her goals with NOT skill, but STAMINA “A great teacher teaches you what they have experienced." “A great teacher gives students time to practice.” “A great teacher must be confident.”
This was the first time that I had asked students to think about and voice their expectations about me as their teacher. I felt that this experience was successful for my students and even more, a great introduction to the open and honest conversations and discussions that we were going to have as a class about how students felt while participating in band. I did not need to be the one and only leader of the classroom. I was beginning to see the benefit of letting go and passing more responsibilities onto my students. It was reassuring to see students write about working hard, but I wondered, would they be able to actually do it?
Connecting with Student Voices and Digging Deeper: A Preliminary Survey
I worked at designing survey questions that would give a baseline or starting point to answer my research question. I still questioned exactly what I was going to measure. The questions I began with changed and evolved over time as I collected input from my students. Some of the questions worked, and others did not. The data collection process was an incredibly reflective time for me to look at my own teaching and to identify bright spots that would guide me on my quest to understand student practice.
I felt that the initial survey I began with did not give me the depth of information that I wanted. However, the survey started something that I had not tried in any of my classes before, listening to student voice. I realized that if my goal was to get meaningful information from students, I needed to make sure they understood how to give meaningful responses and feedback.
I was inspired by the work Kathleen Cushman had done with her students. Her book, Fires in the Mind sparked new ways in which I thought about my class and provided me with a great starting point to have these conversations with my students. I was particularly struck by the relationship she created with the students she worked with. The student quotes she includes throughout the book describe a classroom culture that engages and supports every student. She explores and talks about how students experience deliberate practice and perseverance within topics or subjects they care deeply about. I wanted to hear what my students had to say about their experiences with practice and perseverance in band, so I began asking for their responses through exit cards and surveys.
The preliminary survey was given after the first six weeks of class. Again as I started out I was initially trying to get baseline information about creating a classroom community that supports deliberate practice, mastery, and joy. I focused on the 7th and 8th grade combined concert band for the duration of my research. I used the surveys and exit cards with all my class but chose these two 7th and 8th grade classes as the focus of my analysis. I identified common themes that were emerging in their feedback and followed up with questions targeting the themes more specifically.
Some of the first questions I wanted to know about were:
I continued to think about what made students want to be in band. What struck me most about students’ answers were their responses about what would make the class better. I was surprised by how many of their responses focused on how other students participated in class. Out of 46 students that completed a survey at the beginning of the year, 43% (20 students) said something about other student’s participation and or effort. Below are some of their responses.
I asked students, what would make band better for you and the entire class?
It was powerful to see students talking about how other’s participation and behavior effects their own motivation. I wanted to know more about how students currently felt about band and determine if their feelings would change as I focused on their suggestions for improving the class throughout the year. Throughout the data collection process, I noticed that I was changing my normal class routines and worked to include and try student’s suggestions. I asked all of the students for responses whenever I changed something from my regular practice or used one of their collective suggestions during a class. Whenever we tried something new I asked them how they felt about it. This created many more opportunities for students to voice feedback and opinions about how they experienced class and what they thought was most beneficial to their learning.
I was surprised by how I could see a difference in student’s behaviors, attitudes and effort when they participated in deciding what we needed to focus on during rehearsal. This was an important step in students taking ownership of the class and responsible for their contributions. By including them on deciding what to practice the students owned the progress they made during the rehearsal. I was beginning to see a change in the classroom culture from students passively participating to being active and engaged in each rehearsal. The energy in the class was becoming consistently more positive day by day and I could see and hear the differences.
In this initial survey, I also asked students a variety of questions where they rated their responses on a scale of 1 – 5. (A (5) rating indicated high or great satisfaction and a (1) indicated low satisfaction.) I was excited to see that most students were enjoying the class but wanted to know more from the students who rated their satisfaction as a 3 or lower.
Looking closely at individual responses I began to see a pattern emerging that may have explained the low ratings from a few students. Six students that rated a 3 or lower on the survey response also included a meaningful comment about how to improve the class. One student Brady, who rated his satisfaction as a 2, the lowest rating of the class wrote,
“People need to practice the songs, their tone, and play at the right time to start so we don't have to start over like 20 times.”
I felt that Brady was speaking about students who frequently play their instruments disruptively throughout rehearsal. I could hear his frustration so I looked at his other responses more closely. Over the year Brady became a student I could always rely on for an honest opinion. He told me when things worked as well as when things completely failed. He also openly admitted when he was being lazy and didn’t like working, and when he had been working really hard. Brady started playing in 6th grade and has grown as a musician and leader throughout his three years in the program. The meaningful discussions we have had about improving the class have strengthened his identity as a musician and leader within the ensemble over the years. Yet, in each survey question in which I asked students to rate certain aspects of their playing Brady rated them a 3 or lower. This puzzled me because he had been a student who was a very positive contributing member of the class for the past three years. Was he basing his satisfaction on the performance and actions of other students? The conversations and responses that followed told me that he was not happy with the collective effort of some of his peers within the band. In a conversation after class talking about effort he said,
“Why should I work hard and focus if I know that Julius is going to just goof off the whole time…other students need to respect those of us who take band seriously.”
It was clear that the work ethic or lack of work ethic of Julius was negatively affecting Brady’s experience and motivation. I wondered what was the root cause for students being off task and disruptive during class. Was it purely their age and lack of maturity or was it something more. Pink says, “To motivate students in this era, we don’t need better management, we need a renaissance of self direction” (2010, p.92). If I changed the way my class functioned and allowed all students to have more autonomy would all students’ motivation and focus improve as Pink suggests? As I continued to dig into these conversations throughout the year, I started to understand much more about how students experienced band and why it was important to them.
While my preliminary survey gave me lots of information about how students felt about band in general, I wanted to understand more about what in particular they enjoyed about band, and why. I followed up and asked students what they enjoyed about band and why on exit cards and in conversations after I analyzed their survey results. Here are some of their responses:
I like playing in band because I get a feeling of accomplishment when I play something well.
I like playing challenging music that people can recognize and dance or tap their feet to.
The slower songs are boring and dull; we do better on the fast exciting ones.
When people here us play I want to wow them. I want them to think; whoa that’s a middle school band?
Most of the responses from the exit cards said something about the music we played and performed in class. As I talked more with students about this, they said that some of the songs were too easy and so they didn’t really try to play them well. They worked more on the songs that they liked to play that were usually faster, more exciting and challenging for them. As a result of this feedback I modified my method of selecting music for students for the rest of the year. Instead of just picking something I thought they should play, I let them suggest and listen to a number of songs and asked them to vote and choose what we would study. I don’t think that their buy-in and motivation to play directly correlates with a certain type of music, but I have seen a deeper buy-in and commitment to learning a song and playing it well that students choose, versus when I select a song alone without giving them a choice.
During the first week of school community and norm building I asked students to complete an exit card. This data did not particularly pertain to deliberate practice but it set the foundation for what was to follow and directly shaped my approach to teaching. Students were asked to complete the following two sentences. “A great music student...” And “A great teacher…” Students created five sentences for each prompt. We set up the classroom in a big semi-circle and had two student volunteers record the responses on the white board. Students took turns reading their responses out loud. After all of the responses were recorded on the board we discussed, combined and reworded their responses. Throughout this process students identified common themes like joy, perseverance and effective practice. I asked students to think about what quotes would be the most important to remember throughout the year. We agreed to turn our favorite responses into large format posters for the band room.
I learned a great deal of what students expected from me as their teacher from this simple exercise. It allowed students to begin to take more responsibility for their success both as individual musicians and as an ensemble. The posters containing their favorite quotes gave me plenty to consider each day when I walked into the classroom:
“A great student never gives up no matter how hard the task is.” “A great student listens to what the teacher says and uses it in a resourceful way.” “A great student achieves his or her goals with NOT skill, but STAMINA “A great teacher teaches you what they have experienced." “A great teacher gives students time to practice.” “A great teacher must be confident.”
This was the first time that I had asked students to think about and voice their expectations about me as their teacher. I felt that this experience was successful for my students and even more, a great introduction to the open and honest conversations and discussions that we were going to have as a class about how students felt while participating in band. I did not need to be the one and only leader of the classroom. I was beginning to see the benefit of letting go and passing more responsibilities onto my students. It was reassuring to see students write about working hard, but I wondered, would they be able to actually do it?
Connecting with Student Voices and Digging Deeper: A Preliminary Survey
I worked at designing survey questions that would give a baseline or starting point to answer my research question. I still questioned exactly what I was going to measure. The questions I began with changed and evolved over time as I collected input from my students. Some of the questions worked, and others did not. The data collection process was an incredibly reflective time for me to look at my own teaching and to identify bright spots that would guide me on my quest to understand student practice.
I felt that the initial survey I began with did not give me the depth of information that I wanted. However, the survey started something that I had not tried in any of my classes before, listening to student voice. I realized that if my goal was to get meaningful information from students, I needed to make sure they understood how to give meaningful responses and feedback.
I was inspired by the work Kathleen Cushman had done with her students. Her book, Fires in the Mind sparked new ways in which I thought about my class and provided me with a great starting point to have these conversations with my students. I was particularly struck by the relationship she created with the students she worked with. The student quotes she includes throughout the book describe a classroom culture that engages and supports every student. She explores and talks about how students experience deliberate practice and perseverance within topics or subjects they care deeply about. I wanted to hear what my students had to say about their experiences with practice and perseverance in band, so I began asking for their responses through exit cards and surveys.
The preliminary survey was given after the first six weeks of class. Again as I started out I was initially trying to get baseline information about creating a classroom community that supports deliberate practice, mastery, and joy. I focused on the 7th and 8th grade combined concert band for the duration of my research. I used the surveys and exit cards with all my class but chose these two 7th and 8th grade classes as the focus of my analysis. I identified common themes that were emerging in their feedback and followed up with questions targeting the themes more specifically.
Some of the first questions I wanted to know about were:
- Were my student’s enjoying the class?
- What did my students enjoy most about being in band?
- How could I make band better for all students?
- What was the most important aspect of my program? Performing? Practicing? Community? Teamwork?
I continued to think about what made students want to be in band. What struck me most about students’ answers were their responses about what would make the class better. I was surprised by how many of their responses focused on how other students participated in class. Out of 46 students that completed a survey at the beginning of the year, 43% (20 students) said something about other student’s participation and or effort. Below are some of their responses.
I asked students, what would make band better for you and the entire class?
- “If everyone did what they were supposed to do"
- “If other people would practice more”
- “I think band would be better if people paid attention more and listened so we can get through all of our songs and prefect them.”
- “It would make band better for me and the entire class if we rehearsed the songs more and practiced the parts we don't understand”
- “If we were all paying attention and playing right”
- “Kids have to stop when the teacher tells us and try harder and practice”
- “If we had more independent practice during class”
- “People practice the songs, their tone, and play at the right time to start so we don't have to start over like 20 times”
- “Work on parts that people have had trouble on”
It was powerful to see students talking about how other’s participation and behavior effects their own motivation. I wanted to know more about how students currently felt about band and determine if their feelings would change as I focused on their suggestions for improving the class throughout the year. Throughout the data collection process, I noticed that I was changing my normal class routines and worked to include and try student’s suggestions. I asked all of the students for responses whenever I changed something from my regular practice or used one of their collective suggestions during a class. Whenever we tried something new I asked them how they felt about it. This created many more opportunities for students to voice feedback and opinions about how they experienced class and what they thought was most beneficial to their learning.
I was surprised by how I could see a difference in student’s behaviors, attitudes and effort when they participated in deciding what we needed to focus on during rehearsal. This was an important step in students taking ownership of the class and responsible for their contributions. By including them on deciding what to practice the students owned the progress they made during the rehearsal. I was beginning to see a change in the classroom culture from students passively participating to being active and engaged in each rehearsal. The energy in the class was becoming consistently more positive day by day and I could see and hear the differences.
In this initial survey, I also asked students a variety of questions where they rated their responses on a scale of 1 – 5. (A (5) rating indicated high or great satisfaction and a (1) indicated low satisfaction.) I was excited to see that most students were enjoying the class but wanted to know more from the students who rated their satisfaction as a 3 or lower.
Looking closely at individual responses I began to see a pattern emerging that may have explained the low ratings from a few students. Six students that rated a 3 or lower on the survey response also included a meaningful comment about how to improve the class. One student Brady, who rated his satisfaction as a 2, the lowest rating of the class wrote,
“People need to practice the songs, their tone, and play at the right time to start so we don't have to start over like 20 times.”
I felt that Brady was speaking about students who frequently play their instruments disruptively throughout rehearsal. I could hear his frustration so I looked at his other responses more closely. Over the year Brady became a student I could always rely on for an honest opinion. He told me when things worked as well as when things completely failed. He also openly admitted when he was being lazy and didn’t like working, and when he had been working really hard. Brady started playing in 6th grade and has grown as a musician and leader throughout his three years in the program. The meaningful discussions we have had about improving the class have strengthened his identity as a musician and leader within the ensemble over the years. Yet, in each survey question in which I asked students to rate certain aspects of their playing Brady rated them a 3 or lower. This puzzled me because he had been a student who was a very positive contributing member of the class for the past three years. Was he basing his satisfaction on the performance and actions of other students? The conversations and responses that followed told me that he was not happy with the collective effort of some of his peers within the band. In a conversation after class talking about effort he said,
“Why should I work hard and focus if I know that Julius is going to just goof off the whole time…other students need to respect those of us who take band seriously.”
It was clear that the work ethic or lack of work ethic of Julius was negatively affecting Brady’s experience and motivation. I wondered what was the root cause for students being off task and disruptive during class. Was it purely their age and lack of maturity or was it something more. Pink says, “To motivate students in this era, we don’t need better management, we need a renaissance of self direction” (2010, p.92). If I changed the way my class functioned and allowed all students to have more autonomy would all students’ motivation and focus improve as Pink suggests? As I continued to dig into these conversations throughout the year, I started to understand much more about how students experienced band and why it was important to them.
While my preliminary survey gave me lots of information about how students felt about band in general, I wanted to understand more about what in particular they enjoyed about band, and why. I followed up and asked students what they enjoyed about band and why on exit cards and in conversations after I analyzed their survey results. Here are some of their responses:
I like playing in band because I get a feeling of accomplishment when I play something well.
I like playing challenging music that people can recognize and dance or tap their feet to.
The slower songs are boring and dull; we do better on the fast exciting ones.
When people here us play I want to wow them. I want them to think; whoa that’s a middle school band?
Most of the responses from the exit cards said something about the music we played and performed in class. As I talked more with students about this, they said that some of the songs were too easy and so they didn’t really try to play them well. They worked more on the songs that they liked to play that were usually faster, more exciting and challenging for them. As a result of this feedback I modified my method of selecting music for students for the rest of the year. Instead of just picking something I thought they should play, I let them suggest and listen to a number of songs and asked them to vote and choose what we would study. I don’t think that their buy-in and motivation to play directly correlates with a certain type of music, but I have seen a deeper buy-in and commitment to learning a song and playing it well that students choose, versus when I select a song alone without giving them a choice.
I also used the preliminary survey to find out what motivated students to work hard in band. Looking back, I should have just asked them “What motivates you to work in band?” but I thought that being specific with my questions would help guide students through the survey. I learned that by asking specific questions, I was limiting how my students could respond. It took experiencing this firsthand to discover how to ask my students meaningful questions that explained more about their experiences in band. However, I did learn that most of my students enjoy learning new songs, as shown below.
I also wanted to know if students were willing to sacrifice the novelty of learning new songs if given the chance to work on something until they had it absolutely perfect. As shown in Figure 1b and 1c, it was interesting to see that more students were interested in playing new songs than making a song sound perfect. I thought that this piece of data would tell me about student’s willingness to work toward mastery. But I suspect their responses had more to do with the age and attention span of middle school students and their developing understanding and expectation of proper instrument tone, technique, and style. As students mature as musicians, much emphasis is placed on the development of these techniques as they determine how each note is expressed to the audience. How the music sounds to an audience is more important than what music is being played. This development takes many years of practice and experience to understand how to add expression and life to each note. Students in middle school tend to have difficulty understanding how their actions affect others. The beginning students in my classes tend to be satisfied with just making the right notes come out at the right time and less concerned with how the notes fit within the rest of the ensemble.
I also wanted to know if students were willing to sacrifice the novelty of learning new songs if given the chance to work on something until they had it absolutely perfect. As shown in Figure 1b and 1c, it was interesting to see that more students were interested in playing new songs than making a song sound perfect. I thought that this piece of data would tell me about student’s willingness to work toward mastery. But I suspect their responses had more to do with the age and attention span of middle school students and their developing understanding and expectation of proper instrument tone, technique, and style. As students mature as musicians, much emphasis is placed on the development of these techniques as they determine how each note is expressed to the audience. How the music sounds to an audience is more important than what music is being played. This development takes many years of practice and experience to understand how to add expression and life to each note. Students in middle school tend to have difficulty understanding how their actions affect others. The beginning students in my classes tend to be satisfied with just making the right notes come out at the right time and less concerned with how the notes fit within the rest of the ensemble.
I also asked students if they enjoyed practicing the same songs until they were perfect to see if they were working on developing their sound and tone throughout their practice. I should have just asked if students were working on improving their tone in their daily practice. I found out that most of my students enjoyed practicing songs until they felt they were perfect.
The question below confused my students. I was wondering if students preferred practicing and learning their parts on their own, or with others. I asked students to rate their enjoyment of playing or working independently, but I realized in conversations with them that this same question on a different day might have produced completely different results.
The graph did show that over half of my students preferred working independently to some degree, but the question was worded in a somewhat leading way. In general, this first survey drove me to come up with better questions that could tell me much more about my student’s experience practicing individually. It also drove me to think deeply about how student’s were experiencing individual practice and what they were doing when they practiced.
The graph did show that over half of my students preferred working independently to some degree, but the question was worded in a somewhat leading way. In general, this first survey drove me to come up with better questions that could tell me much more about my student’s experience practicing individually. It also drove me to think deeply about how student’s were experiencing individual practice and what they were doing when they practiced.
A shift from “how much” to “how”
Another piece of data I collected along with the first survey was about how many minutes students spent practicing independently outside of class. As part of their participation grade, students were expected to practice at least two hours each week to receive full credit. The graph below shows the amount of time students reported that they spent practicing.
Of course, there is no way to tell for sure if a student has been practicing as much as they say. However, I began to think this wasn’t as important as I initially thought. I analyzed the data and asked students about their practice habits and routines, I realized that the amount of time my students reported that they spent practicing would not necessarily insure that each of them were progressing in their own playing. As I discussed practicing with different students I quickly realized that I needed to shift my focus from how much students were practicing to how students were spending their practice time.
It was at this time that I had my first “a-ha” moment or shift in thinking towards how I was teaching my classes. I wasn’t focusing on what is really important about Deliberate Practice, which is HOW you do it. What if my students didn’t know what to do when they practiced on their own? It would be a waste of anyone’s time if they hopelessly subjected themselves to hours of practice day upon day only to find out there was a much easier way.
I was ready to embrace this change immediately but realized it was going to take my students much longer to get used to the shift. All of the stress and frustration I had been feeling when trying to teach something new was probably because my students didn’t understand how to approach new music. When I gave them time to work independently or in small groups, they may not have known what to do or how to work productively. I had to teach my students how to practice and shift their mindset about what practice meant. I also had to model my expectations for what I expected them to be able to do.
When I thought about my expectations for student practice I thought deeply about my own experience with practice and when I felt very successful at it. Csikszentmihaly (1990) describes flow as a mental state in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process. Two of the most important factors of achieving a flow state are participating in an activity with clear goals, where expectations and rules are discernible and where goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities. Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high. Also, a person needs to practice with a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention, meaning that a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it. Flow is completely focused motivation.
Throughout the rehearsals that followed, I worked to ensure that I was modeling clear specific goals for our rehearsals and that students were participating with a high degree of concentration. To achieve this during class I continually reminded them of the goal or desired outcome and played examples of what we were working towards. Cikszentmihaly’s work on flow also addresses the topic of having high goals and expectations. If the goal is not challenging, it isn’t worth working for.
As a result of this a-ha moment, I stopped focusing on self-reports of how much students were practicing and instead rethought my approach in teaching students about practice. I wanted to take the emphasis off of a practice requirement, and show students that practice would help them to become a meaningful member of the ensemble and someone whom others depended on. Students needed to realize that the effort they put into practice was not just for themselves, but also for each player in the group. In short, they needed a sense of purpose, that they were connected to something bigger than themselves. Csikszentmihaly wrote about purpose, “One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without a feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself” (1990, p.43). How could my class become that “something” that students felt like they belonged to? I realized that when students decided that band and music was “their thing” and identified with being a musician, practice would just become part of their perceived expectation. If you identify yourself as a jock, you practice the sports you play. If you’re a swimmer, you swim. If you are a basketball player, you practice your free throws. A golfer perfects their swing. And musicians practice the music they want to play.
Of course, there is no way to tell for sure if a student has been practicing as much as they say. However, I began to think this wasn’t as important as I initially thought. I analyzed the data and asked students about their practice habits and routines, I realized that the amount of time my students reported that they spent practicing would not necessarily insure that each of them were progressing in their own playing. As I discussed practicing with different students I quickly realized that I needed to shift my focus from how much students were practicing to how students were spending their practice time.
It was at this time that I had my first “a-ha” moment or shift in thinking towards how I was teaching my classes. I wasn’t focusing on what is really important about Deliberate Practice, which is HOW you do it. What if my students didn’t know what to do when they practiced on their own? It would be a waste of anyone’s time if they hopelessly subjected themselves to hours of practice day upon day only to find out there was a much easier way.
I was ready to embrace this change immediately but realized it was going to take my students much longer to get used to the shift. All of the stress and frustration I had been feeling when trying to teach something new was probably because my students didn’t understand how to approach new music. When I gave them time to work independently or in small groups, they may not have known what to do or how to work productively. I had to teach my students how to practice and shift their mindset about what practice meant. I also had to model my expectations for what I expected them to be able to do.
When I thought about my expectations for student practice I thought deeply about my own experience with practice and when I felt very successful at it. Csikszentmihaly (1990) describes flow as a mental state in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process. Two of the most important factors of achieving a flow state are participating in an activity with clear goals, where expectations and rules are discernible and where goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities. Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high. Also, a person needs to practice with a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention, meaning that a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it. Flow is completely focused motivation.
Throughout the rehearsals that followed, I worked to ensure that I was modeling clear specific goals for our rehearsals and that students were participating with a high degree of concentration. To achieve this during class I continually reminded them of the goal or desired outcome and played examples of what we were working towards. Cikszentmihaly’s work on flow also addresses the topic of having high goals and expectations. If the goal is not challenging, it isn’t worth working for.
As a result of this a-ha moment, I stopped focusing on self-reports of how much students were practicing and instead rethought my approach in teaching students about practice. I wanted to take the emphasis off of a practice requirement, and show students that practice would help them to become a meaningful member of the ensemble and someone whom others depended on. Students needed to realize that the effort they put into practice was not just for themselves, but also for each player in the group. In short, they needed a sense of purpose, that they were connected to something bigger than themselves. Csikszentmihaly wrote about purpose, “One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without a feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself” (1990, p.43). How could my class become that “something” that students felt like they belonged to? I realized that when students decided that band and music was “their thing” and identified with being a musician, practice would just become part of their perceived expectation. If you identify yourself as a jock, you practice the sports you play. If you’re a swimmer, you swim. If you are a basketball player, you practice your free throws. A golfer perfects their swing. And musicians practice the music they want to play.
Learning about Practice from Students
Before teaching students how to practice, I wanted to understand more about how they experienced practice. After I analyzed the data from the preliminary survey, I listened for students talking about their perceptions of practice. I collected data from class exit cards and through informal conversations about practice. I was hearing things like the following:
“Practice is something I feel like I HAVE to do to get a good grade.”
“My parents make me practice”
“If no one else practices, why should I?”
“If you want to get good at something, you just do it.”
It was clear that a theme was developing. Students felt that practice was something that was important for their progress, but also felt that practice was imposed upon them from an outside source. It wasn’t something that most students were intrinsically motivated to do and I wondered how we could make band better so students were motivated to practice more.
At the same time, I was asking students, “How can we make band better?” Their responses on exit cards were all over the place, from choosing instruments, to having more students, to being completely satisfied with what we had already. I was still working to tune my questions so students understood that I was looking at their ability to learn new songs, concepts and techniques and the practices they used to progress. Even though the first set of responses were very scattered, two clear themes emerged. Out of the 46 exit cards I received, 35 students or 75% included a positive response about working with a partner or in small groups. 40 students or 87% said something about improving behavior and doing better at responding to teacher feedback.
Quotes about student behavior and responding to feedback: “I would make today’s class better by listening to other people’s parts” “We need to work on what the teacher tells us with focus.” “It would make class better if people didn’t talk to each other when the teacher is trying to help us with notes or rhythms.”
Quotes about working with others:
“Working in our sectionals would make it better, everyone would know their part." "We can make band better by coming in to practice and practicing at home, or you can work with a friend or someone you know before or after school.” "I could practice more with my older brother at home because he is really good at teaching me what notes to play when I get confused and don’t know how something goes."
Students at my school consider me to be a strict and organized teacher so it struck me that 87% of students said something about improving behavior in my classroom.
This also meant that I was spending a majority of my energy on getting people to stop talking and monitoring behavior instead of leading a rehearsal that engaged students. One problem in a large ensemble is that there are inevitably times where not every student is playing. I knew that students needed to have something engaging to keep them part of the rehearsal even when they weren’t playing, but we would have to practice this to make it become part of our regular habits. One week I focused specifically on teaching students what they should be doing when they were either counting rests or waiting for another group to rehearse a certain section. I also told a story about my own experience practicing with musicians who all were 100% committed to each other during rehearsals and the joy we all experienced when we performed an amazing concert. This helped to demonstrate what I was after and helped keep some students engaged, but others were still prone to socializing or disengaging from the rehearsal or activity if they weren’t directly being coached.
The importance of “How”: Deliberate Practice
The shift in the focus from “how much” my students practiced to “how” they practiced continued as I talked with students about my research project and goals. We talked about deliberate practice and discussed how we could use deliberate practice within our classroom and in our own individual practice. Individual practice had not been an area that I focused on with students in past years. I just assumed that student’s would practice on their own when they needed to and that they knew what to do. In previous years students were required to practice a certain number of minutes a week outside of class for a grade.
However, this year I didn’t want practice to feel like something theywere required to do. I wanted to create an autonomous classroom community that students were motivated to practice for. Pink stated that, “Autonomous motivation involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice, whereas controlled motivation involves behaving with the experience of pressure and demand toward specific outcomes that come from forces perceived to be external to the self” (2010, p. 225). If I let go of controlling their practice maybe I would actually see an increase in their focus, effort and motivation to practice. In the weeks that followed, I worked with students to rethink and create a general practice method and practice record for students to track their individual practice and take notes on what was working in their own practice. How I presented the re-designed practice sheet to the class was an early turning point and small step in changing student’s perceptions about practice. It was also an important moment, as I had to let go of feeling solely responsible for each student’s practice.
After thinking about what purpose the practice records served, I made a decision to change the design and requirements. I talked to my classes about the importance of consistent practice and the tools that professional musicians use to insure they are progressing in their own practice. I explained that the practice record would become a tool for each person to track and record their practice. The most important change I made to the practice record was the addition of a second page, which included a section for students to record their weekly goals and a suggested practice method that students created, which I discuss later. (See Appendix A.1 and A.2)
I felt that giving points or assigning a grade for a useless piece of paper that tracks time practicing did not determine how well the students progressed and performed. However, a practice record could become a great motivator for students and individuals to help them track their individual progress. There have been many useful apps and programs for tracking weight loss, diets, running, cycling and other tasks created to motivate people towards a specific goal. I wanted the final version of my practice record to become a similar tool that users would find motivating and useful to track their progress towards their goals. For students to become successful with individual practice and group rehearsals, they needed to demonstrate consistent, individual concentrated focus, effort and perseverance to insure they performed at their very best. I also needed to provide them with the tools to do this.
I asked students for feedback about the usefulness of the new practice record guidelines. The graph below shows how students rated their experience with the new practice record.
I asked students to explain their thoughts about the new practice record in the reflection section of one of the practice records. Their quotes showed that students enjoyed having responsibility, choice and control over their practice.
“The practice record is a reminder of what I need to work on”
“I like that I can choose what parts of the music to play.”
“I forget to write in the times I practice, but it keeps me organized.”
“Goals help to keep me working towards being more professional.
I was excited that a majority of the class expressed satisfaction with the new practice record. However I did not see a major change in the amount of practice records that were turned in and completed on time. I refused to be disappointed in the amount of completed records that were turned in because I felt that what students were doing in their practice outweighed the importance of turning in a piece of paper for a grade. In conversations with students I discovered that many of them had developed their own way of incorporating the practice record in their practice. Students were beginning to understand the difference from the practice record being a mandated requirement to it becoming a meaningful tool to enhance their practice. This change in mindset was important as I continued to let go of controlling my students practice and allowing them an opportunity to own their practice.
Every Voice Matters
By early November, I was having many more conversations with groups of students about their thoughts about our rehearsals and performances, and I wanted to hear what students experienced or perceived when a class went well vs. when a class went bad.
I asked a student about what he thought comparatively about two rehearsals we had during the week. We had class on Tuesday and Thursday and the classes were very different in terms of students feeling successful. Both classes began with announcements and an organized group warm-up. We split into sectionals to work in small groups on selected parts of the new music we were learning. I felt that Thursday’s class had been markedly more productive and enjoyable than Tuesday’s. I wanted to know what students experienced. Below is a short transcription of an interview I had with an 8th grade student,
Teacher: What was different between Tuesday and Thursday this week?
Student: There was a lot more focus throughout the group; um I think people concentrated on parts that they know they needed to work on. And they worked on the hard parts, practiced them at home and at school… I don’t know, we just, something was just different and we sounded better.
Teacher: How did you feel at the end of Tuesday’s rehearsal?
Student: I was kind of disappointed because we sounded NOT very good and on Thursday I was relieved that we pulled through and sounded much better.
Teacher: What were you’re feelings towards classmates during Tuesday’s rehearsal?
Student: I was kind of annoyed. Because Trey and I put in a lot of work and we try to make it sound really good and the other people, they just hold us back and then when they actually do what they need to be doing it’s kind of nice because the work that you’ve put into it is actually like getting credit.
Teacher: How does it make you feel when you see a group of students that are focused prepared and ready to play, like on Thursday with the Clarinet students?
Student: It was nice, because you can tell that they were confident with their parts and that they have a leader in the group that made sure things got done. It’s just nice that they’re being responsible for themselves.
This conversation revealed that a few students were very aware of the amount of work and effort others were putting into each rehearsal. This student obviously values the amount of effort he puts into each rehearsal and was upset when others didn’t play as well. I wanted to know what other students would say about our rehearsals. Would this change how students work? Students must be able to trust each other to do their part. How could I help build student’s trust of each other?
I wondered if I did more to focus on students’ progress and improvement if other students would be able to hear each other working hard and in turn, be motivated to practice themselves. If students had an opportunity recognize and appreciate each other getting better, perhaps this might motivate them to practice for one another. I asked students to critique different sections of our music at different times throughout our rehearsal. As I listened to sections and individuals I asked students to participate in providing warm feedback and correcting difficult passages or phrases that we were working on. Students were beginning to see how being conscious of what others were doing around them made big improvements to our sound. I made analogies to teammates working together and knowing exactly what the other players are going to do. Students had experience with this outside of class on sports teams but it was still difficult to engage every student in the process.
I also wondered if disruptive students knew or cared about how others felt about their distracting actions and behaviors. Would that change how they participated in class? What if students had a voice in grading or evaluating each other’s participation in class? These were difficult questions for me to untangle. I didn’t want to create a hostile environment where students bashed each other for goofing off, but what if students felt acknowledged and valued and shared their accomplishments each day?
As a result of these wonderings, each day I modeled practice habits with the entire group and highlighted growth I saw within groups of students or individuals. I began asking my students, “What is working?” and “What can we change or do better?” Highlighting “bright spots” and reflecting together began to show me how students saw and thought of each other. Students were beginning to notice improvement within each other and it seemed to motivate others to try harder. I started to see more students hanging around the band room after school practicing. When students stopped by and saw others practicing, they would often pull out their instrument and join in for fifteen to twenty minutes. Pretty soon there were groups of two or three students that would come in after school and ask if they could practice. The fire was starting to spread.
Creating student ownership
In her book Fires in the Mind, Cushman worked alongside 160 students from across the country to find out about student motivation and mastery. Student voice drives her inquiry in search of what it takes to get really good at something. When I was stuck or didn’t know what questions to ask or where to start, I followed the actions she took with her students.
I wanted to share what I was hearing from students about their individual practice but even more I wanted students to share and discuss their individual practice routines with each other. I asked several students from different grades to come to a focus group discussion about practice. These students were from a wide variety of playing abilities but they all had one thing in common; every one of them loved being in band class and playing their instrument.
During the meeting eight of us sat around a table with a few pieces of paper and a pencil. I welcomed the students and explained to them that this team would be coming up with a suggested practice routine for students to follow during their own independent practice. I had students brainstorm and outline one of their typical practice sessions. I asked them, “If you video taped your practice session what would someone see? ” Students took about five minutes to write silently but many of them were eager to discuss so I asked them to turn to a partner and compare practice sessions. Students then created a checklist of practice activities and norms and discussed the purpose of each activity. We had about twelve suggestions to guide a practice but through conversation we edited, combined and narrowed the list down to the eight most important suggestions for a successful practice. (See Appendix A.3)
This is what students felt were the best tips and suggestions to practice and learn new music.
START WITH A GOAL!
KNOW YOUR NOTES AND FINGERINGS.
Listen to an example.
Start at a very SLOW tempo.
Keep the pace STEADY.
SAY, CLAP, or SING note names.
Play passage together focusing on LISTENING.
Have leader DEMONSTRATE if needed.
Follow the cycle!
Step 1: Play 2 measures or small chunk of “Passage” at slow tempo.
Step 2: Repeat 3 – 5 times as a group or until you can play it effortlessly.
We then attached this student-generated list to the practice records students used so that they could reference it during their practice sessions and check off each part that they completed. During this focus group we also addressed problems with small group sectional rehearsals. This group was incredibly driven and stayed focused for nearly 90 minutes of discussing, brainstorming, and writing. I had initially planned on meeting with them for about 30 minutes. After we had come to an agreement on our finished products, there was still a strong buzz of voices talking about even more ways to make band better. The group could not believe we had spent nearly an hour and a half. My students and I were able to experience a state of flow together by creating a meaningful product that everyone involved thought was important.
Giving Sectionals Another Try & Building Student Leadership
During the above focus group, I showed students the results of an earlier exit card where many students stated that having sectionals (small group and instrument specific rehearsals) would make the class better. I explained how I had tried sectionals before in previous years with what I thought was little success. In the past, students moved to different areas of our building, practice rooms, and the empty neighboring classrooms to rehearse specific parts of the songs that are giving them trouble. I discussed the problems I had with sectionals in past years. For example, some students would use the time to just sit and talk, there wasn’t any leadership within the groups and worse there weren’t any established norms for students to follow when they rehearsed in sectionals. As students quietly brainstormed ideas to make sectionals better I realized that these problems had only existed because I had never addressed the issues. I never modeled or talked about how an effective sectional would work, but that was going to change.
Together the focus group created a sectional practice guideline for students to complete following a sectional or small group rehearsal. It included a section to write in the assignments or sections of music to practice, our individual practice cycle, and a feedback section to evaluate each person’s participation in the sectional. After the group had edited and agreed upon the final version of the document we decided to give sectional rehearsals another shot using the protocol described by the sectional guideline. (Appendix A.1)
Students were eager to get this freedom back and work within their small groups. However, the first few times we tried sectionals with the new guidelines, certain members of the group returned to their old habits of disengaging from the rehearsal, socializing and disrupting other members. Groups were still having issues with starting and stopping passages and analyzing each other’s playing but there was also a notable difference. Most students were practicing and were learning their parts. I kept working to make sure every section and individual was getting something out of these sessions by visiting each group for five to ten minutes at a time and modeling specific techniques or passages and referring to steps on the practice guideline. I would try to make three rotations between groups in order to see if continued practice and reinforcement of sectional rehearsals norms would help. I realized that students needed an assigned leader to follow and needed feedback about their sectionals in order to fine-tune the process and make it effective for each student.
I had a discussion with my classes about every student’s role and contributions to the group. Each instrument plays a specific part. Without one or two instruments we could not successfully play the music as the composer originally intended. I made a comparison to working with a group of students on a project in history. When students work on a group project, they many times equally divide the workload among each student. However, if one student does not complete his or her part, the rest of the members have to pick up the slack and make up the work. However, during a musical performance, students cannot pick up any struggling member’s work and make it better. Students must take individual responsibility for their role in the music and participation within the ensemble for the group to perform at 100%. Every student plays a vital role in the success of playing a song regardless of the instrument, musical arrangement or ability of the player. Every voice matters.
Throughout the sectional rehearsals I saw students beginning to step up into leadership roles. We discussed and revised the sectional guidelines as a class after completing a rehearsal and similar questions came up from multiple instrument groups. How do we pick a leader for our group? Can there be two leaders? The sectional guideline refers to a leader to take control of the group. They select what passages to work on and direct the group when to start playing together. They also manage the group’s progress and help determine when something needs to be repeated or when the group can move on.
I didn’t assign roles within the groups because I wanted students to select the leader for their group. It was interesting walking around from group to group and seeing who had been selected as a leader. In some instances it was a very outgoing student. In others it was a more reserved and quite student. When I stopped in to hear how a sectional was doing I sat back and tried to blend in and observe without making an impact on the rehearsal. Sometimes when I slipped quietly into a room, all of the students would stop playing as if they were waiting for me to lead them. As I waited for the rehearsals to continue I noticed that some of the selected leaders were very comfortable with leading while I was in the room and others needed a little encouragement from other students within the group. It made me think that students were worried that they were doing something wrong in leading their groups.
In conversations over the following weeks, several students mentioned that sectionals were becoming more productive and worked well when one of their peers led the group. On an exit card after a sectional rehearsal, I asked the class to reflect on what they felt has had an effect on band class. Many students mentioned something about leadership within the sectional rehearsals, having an example to follow, and the importance of having a plan to follow.
Exit Card Question: What has had an effect on band so far this year?
Having a sectional leader and working together. Also in sectionals getting rid of people that distract other people.
Sectionals!!! It really has helped me personally enjoy band and get to know other students. It helps to hear our section leader play how it’s supposed to go. Working in the trumpet section is really fun because we get things done. Sometimes maybe people have forgotten or don’t remember the song and its just better to be in our own sections working independently making those parts better.
Dividing into sectional groups and following the leader helped everyone individually and we get to know our parts better as a group.
I think trying new things this year like the sectional outline or anything new we have done because it has helped us in positive ways like the way we practice and the way we play.
I think using time for sectionals has really had an effect on band this year because I've noticed that when we're practicing songs, it sounds better and people are having fun. They also understand the music more than they did before we started doing sectionals. People also get a chance to lead and direct which is fun!
It was clear from the responses that students felt that the sectional rehearsals had been beneficial not just for themselves but also for all students within the group. I was struck that many of the responses indicated something about noticing or acknowledging improvement in other players and sections. Students recognized the effort of members of their section and were thinking about other student’s contributions.
Students also noticed and appreciated the work being done by individuals when they rehearsed as a full group. One of my focus students spoke with me after class about how he felt things were coming along.
Teacher: What did you notice about today’s rehearsal?
Student: The clarinet section was really good after the sectional time.
Teacher: How could you tell?
Student: I don’t know, I guess I never really heard what they were doing until today. It was just really clear and sounded like one sound. It also looked like each student was focused when they played together, sometimes one or two people stop and I can tell when they put down their instruments.
Teacher: Do you think that made a difference with how others played?
Student: I don’t know, I guess. It was just nice that they were prepared and sounded good. It added to the sound of the group and made it sound better.
Teacher: Do you think it made a difference for you?
Student: Yes, because I could hear their part clearly and knew where my part fit.
I felt that student participation and work within sectionals was getting better but there were still problems with keeping every student engaged, especially when students were working on their own. I wondered about how I could improve student engagement in sectionals and in class rehearsals. It was interesting to note that some of the students who disrupt our class rehearsals were much more focused during their sectional time and other students who were generally focused during class were off task during their sectional time. I kept thinking about how to differentiate instruction to engage these totally different types of students, and began to see that students might need instruction on how to listen to others during a rehearsal.
Playing music as an ensemble requires players to think about many things at once. They have to think about and control their instrument’s sound, and play the correct notes and rhythms, but they also have to consider every other musician in the room. I thought about my experience playing and wondering how my individual sound affected the other players sitting around me. Did anyone even pay attention to me? Could they even hear me? Did my sound even matter if there were six other musicians in my section? I realized that learning to listen while playing was an area that I hadn’t talked to my students about. This led me to change my approach to teaching students new songs and techniques.
Learning how to listen with our whole body
As I continued to ask my students what was working in class, I was struck by how many students kept talking about listening to the music before we played it. Listening to examples of the music we are learning to play is a common activity in my classroom. Listening helps students to make connections and build upon what they already know and understand. It can inspire students to visualize, imagine, practice or work harder at a particular goal. It also teaches students what is appropriate within the context of a piece of music.
In the past, I frequently asked students to listen to a new piece of music before we played it, but I didn’t really pay attention to what and how they participated during listening. Some students motionlessly followed along just moving their eyes from note to note. Other students quickly abandoned the music entirely and started fidgeting or talking with their neighbors.
This year, I decided to try something different. In one of his most inspirational TED-talks, Sir Ken Robinson emphasizes the importance of kinesthetic learning.
“Intelligence is diverse. We think about the world in all the ways we experience it. We think visually, we think sound; we think kinesthetically, we think in abstract terms we think in movement…. There is a reason we have our bodies, and we’re not just brains.”
This is nothing new in terms of teaching to different styles but I was shocked that I was missing this in my teaching. Playing music is a very physical and kinesthetic activity. There are all sorts of sensations students feel while playing an instrument but I had overlooked a basic approach that could help my students.
So, during class I decided to emphasize the listening part of our rehearsal while incorporating physical movement. Instead of just playing the music for the class and having them follow along with their sheet music I tried something different. The first time we listened to the song, I asked students to carefully follow along with their music, but in addition to just reading the sheet music, I asked them to use a pencil or their finger and physically touch each note on the paper as it was played on the recording. I talked about kinesthetic learning and how the brain and body will learn and retain the information more efficiently when they are physically engaged in an activity.
After I explained just a little bit of the science behind the activity I saw much more buy in and focus throughout the activity. After listening with this newfound focus, students seemed excited and more confident in their understanding of the new piece. A few students even shouted out that they wanted to hear the song again so we prepared to listen to the song a second time. Repeating something the exact same way gets boring for any person so the second time we listened, I asked the students to actually play along with the piece as best as they could and still hear the recording. I turned up the sound system and started the song. This time I could sense a strong energy moving through the group as we moved through the music together with the recording. Playing with the recording was our set of training wheels. If students got lost in the music, they could stop and listen and find the correct spot and join back in.
By the end of the song most of the students were playing louder with more confidence and the recording began to get drowned out by the class. At the end of the piece I saw students smiling and talking excitedly about the new piece. One student exclaimed “YESSSS! This is gonna be so cool” as soon as the song finished. Others gave their partners a subtle knuckle-bump and others discussed parts where they got lost or wanted to make better the next time. As the conversations wrapped up, I asked the students if we could try it again but without the recording and a resounding cry of “yes!” broke out. This time we would also try playing at a slower speed by ourselves ensuring that the entire group stayed together.
During this play through, the majority of the group stayed together but there were two tricky areas in the song that fell apart and we had to restart. We took note of these sections and students wrote down the tricky sections in their practice records and marked their music. The students were so engaged in this new process that they asked if we could play through the song one more time with the recording. I turned up the volume on the stereo a little bit more and encouraged them to play confidently and at a regular volume as long as they could hear the recording. The entire length of the recording was about three minutes long so this whole process, explanation and repetition took about twenty minutes of class. I could tell from the energy that students were proud and excited with their quick progress on the brand new song.
The major difference in the listening from previous sessions was how I presented and taught the process to the group. There was a much deeper buy-in and focus when I talked about why and how the process was going to work. When I gave students a meaning and a purpose for an action or task, they focused on it with intensity to master it. Pink (2010) identified autonomy, mastery and purpose as the fuel behind motivation. As I worked to build these elements into my classroom I began to see clear examples of their power to motivate my students.
Following this experience, I asked students what they thought was working in class and what had helped them play a challenging piece of music for the first time. Their comments highlight the benefits of taking the time to learn to listen:
Listening to the music really helped me understand what my part is supposed to do.
I like listening because I can feel the dynamics and pay attention to the correct fingerings.
The listen today helped me to get a sense of the feeling or mood of the song.
Everyone liked the song more so they worked hard because they wanted to play it.
Playing along at the correct tempo is really hard for some people and they fail but it makes it more challenging for advanced students
These statements confirmed what I believed was important about listening but also gave me other things to think about that could be related to students motivation, like why students liked different songs and how to keep all students engaged in a meaningful rehearsal.
I asked a student about what he thought comparatively about two rehearsals we had during the week. We had class on Tuesday and Thursday and the classes were very different in terms of students feeling successful. Both classes began with announcements and an organized group warm-up. We split into sectionals to work in small groups on selected parts of the new music we were learning. I felt that Thursday’s class had been markedly more productive and enjoyable than Tuesday’s. I wanted to know what students experienced. Below is a short transcription of an interview I had with an 8th grade student,
Teacher: What was different between Tuesday and Thursday this week?
Student: There was a lot more focus throughout the group; um I think people concentrated on parts that they know they needed to work on. And they worked on the hard parts, practiced them at home and at school… I don’t know, we just, something was just different and we sounded better.
Teacher: How did you feel at the end of Tuesday’s rehearsal?
Student: I was kind of disappointed because we sounded NOT very good and on Thursday I was relieved that we pulled through and sounded much better.
Teacher: What were you’re feelings towards classmates during Tuesday’s rehearsal?
Student: I was kind of annoyed. Because Trey and I put in a lot of work and we try to make it sound really good and the other people, they just hold us back and then when they actually do what they need to be doing it’s kind of nice because the work that you’ve put into it is actually like getting credit.
Teacher: How does it make you feel when you see a group of students that are focused prepared and ready to play, like on Thursday with the Clarinet students?
Student: It was nice, because you can tell that they were confident with their parts and that they have a leader in the group that made sure things got done. It’s just nice that they’re being responsible for themselves.
This conversation revealed that a few students were very aware of the amount of work and effort others were putting into each rehearsal. This student obviously values the amount of effort he puts into each rehearsal and was upset when others didn’t play as well. I wanted to know what other students would say about our rehearsals. Would this change how students work? Students must be able to trust each other to do their part. How could I help build student’s trust of each other?
I wondered if I did more to focus on students’ progress and improvement if other students would be able to hear each other working hard and in turn, be motivated to practice themselves. If students had an opportunity recognize and appreciate each other getting better, perhaps this might motivate them to practice for one another. I asked students to critique different sections of our music at different times throughout our rehearsal. As I listened to sections and individuals I asked students to participate in providing warm feedback and correcting difficult passages or phrases that we were working on. Students were beginning to see how being conscious of what others were doing around them made big improvements to our sound. I made analogies to teammates working together and knowing exactly what the other players are going to do. Students had experience with this outside of class on sports teams but it was still difficult to engage every student in the process.
I also wondered if disruptive students knew or cared about how others felt about their distracting actions and behaviors. Would that change how they participated in class? What if students had a voice in grading or evaluating each other’s participation in class? These were difficult questions for me to untangle. I didn’t want to create a hostile environment where students bashed each other for goofing off, but what if students felt acknowledged and valued and shared their accomplishments each day?
As a result of these wonderings, each day I modeled practice habits with the entire group and highlighted growth I saw within groups of students or individuals. I began asking my students, “What is working?” and “What can we change or do better?” Highlighting “bright spots” and reflecting together began to show me how students saw and thought of each other. Students were beginning to notice improvement within each other and it seemed to motivate others to try harder. I started to see more students hanging around the band room after school practicing. When students stopped by and saw others practicing, they would often pull out their instrument and join in for fifteen to twenty minutes. Pretty soon there were groups of two or three students that would come in after school and ask if they could practice. The fire was starting to spread.
Creating student ownership
In her book Fires in the Mind, Cushman worked alongside 160 students from across the country to find out about student motivation and mastery. Student voice drives her inquiry in search of what it takes to get really good at something. When I was stuck or didn’t know what questions to ask or where to start, I followed the actions she took with her students.
I wanted to share what I was hearing from students about their individual practice but even more I wanted students to share and discuss their individual practice routines with each other. I asked several students from different grades to come to a focus group discussion about practice. These students were from a wide variety of playing abilities but they all had one thing in common; every one of them loved being in band class and playing their instrument.
During the meeting eight of us sat around a table with a few pieces of paper and a pencil. I welcomed the students and explained to them that this team would be coming up with a suggested practice routine for students to follow during their own independent practice. I had students brainstorm and outline one of their typical practice sessions. I asked them, “If you video taped your practice session what would someone see? ” Students took about five minutes to write silently but many of them were eager to discuss so I asked them to turn to a partner and compare practice sessions. Students then created a checklist of practice activities and norms and discussed the purpose of each activity. We had about twelve suggestions to guide a practice but through conversation we edited, combined and narrowed the list down to the eight most important suggestions for a successful practice. (See Appendix A.3)
This is what students felt were the best tips and suggestions to practice and learn new music.
START WITH A GOAL!
KNOW YOUR NOTES AND FINGERINGS.
Listen to an example.
Start at a very SLOW tempo.
Keep the pace STEADY.
SAY, CLAP, or SING note names.
Play passage together focusing on LISTENING.
Have leader DEMONSTRATE if needed.
Follow the cycle!
Step 1: Play 2 measures or small chunk of “Passage” at slow tempo.
Step 2: Repeat 3 – 5 times as a group or until you can play it effortlessly.
We then attached this student-generated list to the practice records students used so that they could reference it during their practice sessions and check off each part that they completed. During this focus group we also addressed problems with small group sectional rehearsals. This group was incredibly driven and stayed focused for nearly 90 minutes of discussing, brainstorming, and writing. I had initially planned on meeting with them for about 30 minutes. After we had come to an agreement on our finished products, there was still a strong buzz of voices talking about even more ways to make band better. The group could not believe we had spent nearly an hour and a half. My students and I were able to experience a state of flow together by creating a meaningful product that everyone involved thought was important.
Giving Sectionals Another Try & Building Student Leadership
During the above focus group, I showed students the results of an earlier exit card where many students stated that having sectionals (small group and instrument specific rehearsals) would make the class better. I explained how I had tried sectionals before in previous years with what I thought was little success. In the past, students moved to different areas of our building, practice rooms, and the empty neighboring classrooms to rehearse specific parts of the songs that are giving them trouble. I discussed the problems I had with sectionals in past years. For example, some students would use the time to just sit and talk, there wasn’t any leadership within the groups and worse there weren’t any established norms for students to follow when they rehearsed in sectionals. As students quietly brainstormed ideas to make sectionals better I realized that these problems had only existed because I had never addressed the issues. I never modeled or talked about how an effective sectional would work, but that was going to change.
Together the focus group created a sectional practice guideline for students to complete following a sectional or small group rehearsal. It included a section to write in the assignments or sections of music to practice, our individual practice cycle, and a feedback section to evaluate each person’s participation in the sectional. After the group had edited and agreed upon the final version of the document we decided to give sectional rehearsals another shot using the protocol described by the sectional guideline. (Appendix A.1)
Students were eager to get this freedom back and work within their small groups. However, the first few times we tried sectionals with the new guidelines, certain members of the group returned to their old habits of disengaging from the rehearsal, socializing and disrupting other members. Groups were still having issues with starting and stopping passages and analyzing each other’s playing but there was also a notable difference. Most students were practicing and were learning their parts. I kept working to make sure every section and individual was getting something out of these sessions by visiting each group for five to ten minutes at a time and modeling specific techniques or passages and referring to steps on the practice guideline. I would try to make three rotations between groups in order to see if continued practice and reinforcement of sectional rehearsals norms would help. I realized that students needed an assigned leader to follow and needed feedback about their sectionals in order to fine-tune the process and make it effective for each student.
I had a discussion with my classes about every student’s role and contributions to the group. Each instrument plays a specific part. Without one or two instruments we could not successfully play the music as the composer originally intended. I made a comparison to working with a group of students on a project in history. When students work on a group project, they many times equally divide the workload among each student. However, if one student does not complete his or her part, the rest of the members have to pick up the slack and make up the work. However, during a musical performance, students cannot pick up any struggling member’s work and make it better. Students must take individual responsibility for their role in the music and participation within the ensemble for the group to perform at 100%. Every student plays a vital role in the success of playing a song regardless of the instrument, musical arrangement or ability of the player. Every voice matters.
Throughout the sectional rehearsals I saw students beginning to step up into leadership roles. We discussed and revised the sectional guidelines as a class after completing a rehearsal and similar questions came up from multiple instrument groups. How do we pick a leader for our group? Can there be two leaders? The sectional guideline refers to a leader to take control of the group. They select what passages to work on and direct the group when to start playing together. They also manage the group’s progress and help determine when something needs to be repeated or when the group can move on.
I didn’t assign roles within the groups because I wanted students to select the leader for their group. It was interesting walking around from group to group and seeing who had been selected as a leader. In some instances it was a very outgoing student. In others it was a more reserved and quite student. When I stopped in to hear how a sectional was doing I sat back and tried to blend in and observe without making an impact on the rehearsal. Sometimes when I slipped quietly into a room, all of the students would stop playing as if they were waiting for me to lead them. As I waited for the rehearsals to continue I noticed that some of the selected leaders were very comfortable with leading while I was in the room and others needed a little encouragement from other students within the group. It made me think that students were worried that they were doing something wrong in leading their groups.
In conversations over the following weeks, several students mentioned that sectionals were becoming more productive and worked well when one of their peers led the group. On an exit card after a sectional rehearsal, I asked the class to reflect on what they felt has had an effect on band class. Many students mentioned something about leadership within the sectional rehearsals, having an example to follow, and the importance of having a plan to follow.
Exit Card Question: What has had an effect on band so far this year?
Having a sectional leader and working together. Also in sectionals getting rid of people that distract other people.
Sectionals!!! It really has helped me personally enjoy band and get to know other students. It helps to hear our section leader play how it’s supposed to go. Working in the trumpet section is really fun because we get things done. Sometimes maybe people have forgotten or don’t remember the song and its just better to be in our own sections working independently making those parts better.
Dividing into sectional groups and following the leader helped everyone individually and we get to know our parts better as a group.
I think trying new things this year like the sectional outline or anything new we have done because it has helped us in positive ways like the way we practice and the way we play.
I think using time for sectionals has really had an effect on band this year because I've noticed that when we're practicing songs, it sounds better and people are having fun. They also understand the music more than they did before we started doing sectionals. People also get a chance to lead and direct which is fun!
It was clear from the responses that students felt that the sectional rehearsals had been beneficial not just for themselves but also for all students within the group. I was struck that many of the responses indicated something about noticing or acknowledging improvement in other players and sections. Students recognized the effort of members of their section and were thinking about other student’s contributions.
Students also noticed and appreciated the work being done by individuals when they rehearsed as a full group. One of my focus students spoke with me after class about how he felt things were coming along.
Teacher: What did you notice about today’s rehearsal?
Student: The clarinet section was really good after the sectional time.
Teacher: How could you tell?
Student: I don’t know, I guess I never really heard what they were doing until today. It was just really clear and sounded like one sound. It also looked like each student was focused when they played together, sometimes one or two people stop and I can tell when they put down their instruments.
Teacher: Do you think that made a difference with how others played?
Student: I don’t know, I guess. It was just nice that they were prepared and sounded good. It added to the sound of the group and made it sound better.
Teacher: Do you think it made a difference for you?
Student: Yes, because I could hear their part clearly and knew where my part fit.
I felt that student participation and work within sectionals was getting better but there were still problems with keeping every student engaged, especially when students were working on their own. I wondered about how I could improve student engagement in sectionals and in class rehearsals. It was interesting to note that some of the students who disrupt our class rehearsals were much more focused during their sectional time and other students who were generally focused during class were off task during their sectional time. I kept thinking about how to differentiate instruction to engage these totally different types of students, and began to see that students might need instruction on how to listen to others during a rehearsal.
Playing music as an ensemble requires players to think about many things at once. They have to think about and control their instrument’s sound, and play the correct notes and rhythms, but they also have to consider every other musician in the room. I thought about my experience playing and wondering how my individual sound affected the other players sitting around me. Did anyone even pay attention to me? Could they even hear me? Did my sound even matter if there were six other musicians in my section? I realized that learning to listen while playing was an area that I hadn’t talked to my students about. This led me to change my approach to teaching students new songs and techniques.
Learning how to listen with our whole body
As I continued to ask my students what was working in class, I was struck by how many students kept talking about listening to the music before we played it. Listening to examples of the music we are learning to play is a common activity in my classroom. Listening helps students to make connections and build upon what they already know and understand. It can inspire students to visualize, imagine, practice or work harder at a particular goal. It also teaches students what is appropriate within the context of a piece of music.
In the past, I frequently asked students to listen to a new piece of music before we played it, but I didn’t really pay attention to what and how they participated during listening. Some students motionlessly followed along just moving their eyes from note to note. Other students quickly abandoned the music entirely and started fidgeting or talking with their neighbors.
This year, I decided to try something different. In one of his most inspirational TED-talks, Sir Ken Robinson emphasizes the importance of kinesthetic learning.
“Intelligence is diverse. We think about the world in all the ways we experience it. We think visually, we think sound; we think kinesthetically, we think in abstract terms we think in movement…. There is a reason we have our bodies, and we’re not just brains.”
This is nothing new in terms of teaching to different styles but I was shocked that I was missing this in my teaching. Playing music is a very physical and kinesthetic activity. There are all sorts of sensations students feel while playing an instrument but I had overlooked a basic approach that could help my students.
So, during class I decided to emphasize the listening part of our rehearsal while incorporating physical movement. Instead of just playing the music for the class and having them follow along with their sheet music I tried something different. The first time we listened to the song, I asked students to carefully follow along with their music, but in addition to just reading the sheet music, I asked them to use a pencil or their finger and physically touch each note on the paper as it was played on the recording. I talked about kinesthetic learning and how the brain and body will learn and retain the information more efficiently when they are physically engaged in an activity.
After I explained just a little bit of the science behind the activity I saw much more buy in and focus throughout the activity. After listening with this newfound focus, students seemed excited and more confident in their understanding of the new piece. A few students even shouted out that they wanted to hear the song again so we prepared to listen to the song a second time. Repeating something the exact same way gets boring for any person so the second time we listened, I asked the students to actually play along with the piece as best as they could and still hear the recording. I turned up the sound system and started the song. This time I could sense a strong energy moving through the group as we moved through the music together with the recording. Playing with the recording was our set of training wheels. If students got lost in the music, they could stop and listen and find the correct spot and join back in.
By the end of the song most of the students were playing louder with more confidence and the recording began to get drowned out by the class. At the end of the piece I saw students smiling and talking excitedly about the new piece. One student exclaimed “YESSSS! This is gonna be so cool” as soon as the song finished. Others gave their partners a subtle knuckle-bump and others discussed parts where they got lost or wanted to make better the next time. As the conversations wrapped up, I asked the students if we could try it again but without the recording and a resounding cry of “yes!” broke out. This time we would also try playing at a slower speed by ourselves ensuring that the entire group stayed together.
During this play through, the majority of the group stayed together but there were two tricky areas in the song that fell apart and we had to restart. We took note of these sections and students wrote down the tricky sections in their practice records and marked their music. The students were so engaged in this new process that they asked if we could play through the song one more time with the recording. I turned up the volume on the stereo a little bit more and encouraged them to play confidently and at a regular volume as long as they could hear the recording. The entire length of the recording was about three minutes long so this whole process, explanation and repetition took about twenty minutes of class. I could tell from the energy that students were proud and excited with their quick progress on the brand new song.
The major difference in the listening from previous sessions was how I presented and taught the process to the group. There was a much deeper buy-in and focus when I talked about why and how the process was going to work. When I gave students a meaning and a purpose for an action or task, they focused on it with intensity to master it. Pink (2010) identified autonomy, mastery and purpose as the fuel behind motivation. As I worked to build these elements into my classroom I began to see clear examples of their power to motivate my students.
Following this experience, I asked students what they thought was working in class and what had helped them play a challenging piece of music for the first time. Their comments highlight the benefits of taking the time to learn to listen:
Listening to the music really helped me understand what my part is supposed to do.
I like listening because I can feel the dynamics and pay attention to the correct fingerings.
The listen today helped me to get a sense of the feeling or mood of the song.
Everyone liked the song more so they worked hard because they wanted to play it.
Playing along at the correct tempo is really hard for some people and they fail but it makes it more challenging for advanced students
These statements confirmed what I believed was important about listening but also gave me other things to think about that could be related to students motivation, like why students liked different songs and how to keep all students engaged in a meaningful rehearsal.
The Motivational Power of Choice and Performance
Students in band classes participate in a variety of performances throughout the school year. Students perform and practice their instruments daily in front of each other during our rehearsals and sectionals. I wondered how their motivation to perform well was effected by the audience. In rehearsals, the audience consisted of myself and other band students and since this was a normal audience that students are used to everyday, perhaps their motivation to perform well for each other decreased over the course of the year. I noticed an increase in student motivation, focus and practice during rehearsals as we approached concert dates and performances. I asked students for feedback about the preparation and work we had done before and after a concert performance. Specifically, I asked students to rate their satisfaction with the songs we chose for the concert, as shown below.
This graph shows that most of my students were motivated to practice the songs for the concert. I was looking to find out what type of songs students enjoyed and were motivated to practice. I followed up and asked students why they liked the songs, and to specifically describe what it was that they liked about the songs.
“I enjoy having a difficult piece of music that we can play really well.”
“For this concert we played more expressive music and faster music. We practice music we like more.”
“Music that’s upbeat with lots of dynamics, something that is challenging, sounds cool.”
“Some of the slow songs sound pretty, but my part is really easy so I get bored playing it over and over.”
“I think we would do a lot better and have more fun if we played more up-beat challenging songs instead of some of the depressing songs like Pandora. I think we should vote on every song we play instead of just playing what you give us.”
Their comments highlight that students enjoyed playing challenging music, and music that they had a role in selecting. This reflected what Pink (2010) mentions about motivation being linked to a balance between support and challenge. If a task is too challenging and there is not enough support, it can lead to frustration. Similarly, if a task too easy and there is no challenge, it can lead to boredom and apathy. Student feedback led to changes in how I selected music for the group to play. Instead of choosing songs on my own, I let students in on the process. I shared the process I go through and the questions I ask myself when considering purchasing a new piece of music for the group. I explained that as I listened to each song I thought about the capabilities of each student in our group and what they would learn from the piece. I took my students through this process as a group but had much more success when I went through the process with smaller groups of students or individuals on more casual terms.
Students would often come into my room between classes or after school and observe me listening to band or orchestra music. When they heard something they liked they would come over to my desk and ask if we were going to get to play it. When I had questions about the difficulty of a piece, wondering if all students could handle it, I asked students to think about the other players in the group. I asked them, “Do you think the low-brass section will be able to play that?” as we listened to an excerpt of the music. I found that when students really liked a song and wanted to play it, their responses displayed their confidence in the group’s ability. I could tell when songs didn’t fit my students’ tastes because they ignored the music and carried on with their own practice and conversations.
This graph shows that most of my students were motivated to practice the songs for the concert. I was looking to find out what type of songs students enjoyed and were motivated to practice. I followed up and asked students why they liked the songs, and to specifically describe what it was that they liked about the songs.
“I enjoy having a difficult piece of music that we can play really well.”
“For this concert we played more expressive music and faster music. We practice music we like more.”
“Music that’s upbeat with lots of dynamics, something that is challenging, sounds cool.”
“Some of the slow songs sound pretty, but my part is really easy so I get bored playing it over and over.”
“I think we would do a lot better and have more fun if we played more up-beat challenging songs instead of some of the depressing songs like Pandora. I think we should vote on every song we play instead of just playing what you give us.”
Their comments highlight that students enjoyed playing challenging music, and music that they had a role in selecting. This reflected what Pink (2010) mentions about motivation being linked to a balance between support and challenge. If a task is too challenging and there is not enough support, it can lead to frustration. Similarly, if a task too easy and there is no challenge, it can lead to boredom and apathy. Student feedback led to changes in how I selected music for the group to play. Instead of choosing songs on my own, I let students in on the process. I shared the process I go through and the questions I ask myself when considering purchasing a new piece of music for the group. I explained that as I listened to each song I thought about the capabilities of each student in our group and what they would learn from the piece. I took my students through this process as a group but had much more success when I went through the process with smaller groups of students or individuals on more casual terms.
Students would often come into my room between classes or after school and observe me listening to band or orchestra music. When they heard something they liked they would come over to my desk and ask if we were going to get to play it. When I had questions about the difficulty of a piece, wondering if all students could handle it, I asked students to think about the other players in the group. I asked them, “Do you think the low-brass section will be able to play that?” as we listened to an excerpt of the music. I found that when students really liked a song and wanted to play it, their responses displayed their confidence in the group’s ability. I could tell when songs didn’t fit my students’ tastes because they ignored the music and carried on with their own practice and conversations.
I also saw students’ attitudes and moods change as a result of the music we had selected to play. Students enjoyed having a voice in this process. When I ordered music they had selected as a class, many students asked me each day if the new music had come in. They were excited to play new music that they chose. Engagement and effort also increased when we practiced music that the students had chosen as a class. The more casual and informal I kept the conversations the more buy-in and participation I saw. I was asking students to take a risk and express what they wanted from their experience in band and from other members. This process was capped off by a concert performance where students had selected each piece of music for the program. I wanted to know if students felt there was a difference in their preparation for the concert as a result of selecting the music.
I asked students about how well they thought we were prepared for the performance and followed up by asking why they thought they were more or less prepared for the concert.
I wasn’t surprised by the overall positive responses towards the concert performance. Students had been working hard throughout rehearsals leading up to the concert. They were asking questions about specific parts that they were struggling with and came in for extra help and support. Students focused more during rehearsals and were thoughtful about others in the weeks leading up to the performance. I could feel our group pulling closer together and saw that students were enjoying their rehearsals together. I wanted to know why students felt that they were prepared for the concert and what suggestions they had to make it even better for the next concert, so I asked them on an exit card.
Why do you think you were more prepared for this concert?
Because we spent more time practicing in sectionals, and it helped us play and learn the same parts as other people. I felt like it worked when people actually practiced with the whole group and didn’t just mess around.
Mr. Anderson allowed us to work with our groups in either sectionals or before we did the warm-up. That helped a lot, since I started my adventure of playing the flute I always felt more comfortable in asking one of my friends for help, rather than asking the teacher. At the beginning of the year I could hardly keep up with everyone, and the music we played. Even at the October concert (where we performed for the school) it still took me longer to learn "Shipwreck." I knew how to practice better to be ready for the next concert and I felt much better.
I think that sectionals really helped most people learn their music and there seems to be less talking than last year. People stopped talking so much and actually paid attention during class.
I think using time for sectionals has really helped more people prepare because I've noticed that when we're practicing songs, it sounds better and people seem to understand the music more than they did before we started doing sectionals.
There were many positive comments and responses about the changes we were making during rehearsals but the most noticeable was the addition of sectional rehearsals. Students stated that sectionals were an important part of helping them prepare for the concert. They also reflected and compared the differences in how they prepared for previous concerts. I was struck by how many responses included the word “we”, indicating that individual students were feeling like they were a part of something bigger than themselves. Csikszentmihaly stated, “One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without a feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself” (1990, p. 43) The individual conversations, group discussions and reflections upon our collective work had strengthened student’s purpose for participating in band.
It was a difficult task to wrap up my data collection, as the process of asking students for feedback had become a natural addition to my teaching. I was amazed at how much I had learned from my students about how to make class better for each of them. Sometimes teachers focus so deeply on the newest teaching strategies and philosophies to improve our teaching that sometimes we forget the most important resource, the students.
Conclusions and Implications
BACK TO HOME
I asked students about how well they thought we were prepared for the performance and followed up by asking why they thought they were more or less prepared for the concert.
I wasn’t surprised by the overall positive responses towards the concert performance. Students had been working hard throughout rehearsals leading up to the concert. They were asking questions about specific parts that they were struggling with and came in for extra help and support. Students focused more during rehearsals and were thoughtful about others in the weeks leading up to the performance. I could feel our group pulling closer together and saw that students were enjoying their rehearsals together. I wanted to know why students felt that they were prepared for the concert and what suggestions they had to make it even better for the next concert, so I asked them on an exit card.
Why do you think you were more prepared for this concert?
Because we spent more time practicing in sectionals, and it helped us play and learn the same parts as other people. I felt like it worked when people actually practiced with the whole group and didn’t just mess around.
Mr. Anderson allowed us to work with our groups in either sectionals or before we did the warm-up. That helped a lot, since I started my adventure of playing the flute I always felt more comfortable in asking one of my friends for help, rather than asking the teacher. At the beginning of the year I could hardly keep up with everyone, and the music we played. Even at the October concert (where we performed for the school) it still took me longer to learn "Shipwreck." I knew how to practice better to be ready for the next concert and I felt much better.
I think that sectionals really helped most people learn their music and there seems to be less talking than last year. People stopped talking so much and actually paid attention during class.
I think using time for sectionals has really helped more people prepare because I've noticed that when we're practicing songs, it sounds better and people seem to understand the music more than they did before we started doing sectionals.
There were many positive comments and responses about the changes we were making during rehearsals but the most noticeable was the addition of sectional rehearsals. Students stated that sectionals were an important part of helping them prepare for the concert. They also reflected and compared the differences in how they prepared for previous concerts. I was struck by how many responses included the word “we”, indicating that individual students were feeling like they were a part of something bigger than themselves. Csikszentmihaly stated, “One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without a feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself” (1990, p. 43) The individual conversations, group discussions and reflections upon our collective work had strengthened student’s purpose for participating in band.
It was a difficult task to wrap up my data collection, as the process of asking students for feedback had become a natural addition to my teaching. I was amazed at how much I had learned from my students about how to make class better for each of them. Sometimes teachers focus so deeply on the newest teaching strategies and philosophies to improve our teaching that sometimes we forget the most important resource, the students.
Conclusions and Implications
BACK TO HOME